The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the US into an employment crisis. More than 30 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since the pandemic began, and that number is expected to increase. Efforts to limit the coronavirus’s spread, although critical for public health, have led to record-setting unemployment as tens of millions of workers face layoffs, furloughs, and reduced hours. Many of these jobs will come back as we return to more normal life, but new and expanded federally funded programs could drive a faster and more robust economic recovery by creating and subsidizing jobs.
In this special collection of economic recovery resources, we highlight evidence-based recommendations for effective and inclusive programs that could boost employment and help workers and businesses across the nation recover from the crisis.
Watch yesterday’s installment of Evidence to Action, the Urban Institute’s conversation series, where Urban President Sarah Rosen Wartell and US Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) discuss her efforts to create a subsidized employment program. Wartell also joined Urban’s Demetra Nightingale and Georgetown University’s Indivar Dutta-Gupta in conversation.
Driven by the Great Shutdown, April marked the biggest job loss in American history: the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.7 percent, and employers cut 20.5 million jobs. But the numbers do not fully capture workers’ hardships, and employment damage is not distributed equally.
Fourteen Urban experts highlight evidence-based recommendations for effective and inclusive programs that could help workers and businesses across the nation recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since March 21, nearly one of every five workers has sought unemployment benefits. April’s job report will likely tell an even more distressing story. So what should we do?
Critical Value host Justin Milner speaks with researchers Greg Acs, Jesse Jannetta, Heather Hahn, and Shena Ashley for their best ideas on how to get Americans into jobs.
Families of color experience greater financial insecurity because of long histories of housing and employment discrimination. To help them through the pandemic—when they’re also disproportionately suffering COVID-19-related deaths—immediate efforts must increase job access and prevent unsustainable increases in debt.
The neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19 job losses are home to workers in industries bearing the brunt of the economic shutdown, like tourism and transportation. Updated monthly, Urban’s new data tool identifies which neighborhoods are most vulnerable to COVID-19 job losses.
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